California State Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) has introduced a bill that would require the state to teach children how to spot “fake news.”

Gomez, who is also a candidate in the upcoming special election for U.S. Congress in the 34th district — to replace Rep. Xavier Becerra, who has been appointed California Attorney General — is exploiting Democrats’ obsession with “fake news” to make the most of the media’s sudden post-election interest in accurate reporting on current affairs.

(a) For every challenge facing this nation, there are numerous Internet sources pretending to be something they are not. With so much information shared on the Internet, it can be difficult to tell the difference between real news and fake news.

(b) Ordinary people once relied on publishers, editors, and subject matter experts to vet the information they consumed, but information shared on the Internet is disseminated rapidly and often without editorial oversight, making it easier for fake news to reach a large audience.

(c) A recent study has shown that the inability to distinguish between real news and fake news is particularly pronounced among young people.

(d) Young people tend to accept information as presented, even without supporting evidence or citations, and rarely ask where it came from or try to verify it.

(e) Young people also struggle to tell the difference between native advertising, an increasingly common type of advertising that tries to sell or promote a product while posing as a news article, and real news stories.

(f) The inability of young people to distinguish between real news and fake news makes them less informed about important civic issues and poses a direct threat to our democracy.